“It’s uncategorical, a fuel burning oracle, a fantasmagorical machine! It’s more than spec-tacular to use the vernacular, it’s wizard, it’s smashing, it’s keen!” The drama department is performing the classic musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on November 13-15. The musical is based upon the 1968 movie, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Director Robyn Baker, says “The musical follows the movie almost exactly, but the musical has six new bonus numbers that are not in the movie.” The original film ended up on London’s West End and became a classic. The plot of the play follows the Potts family and the magical car Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The two Potts children: Jeremy, played by fresh-man Kyler Lawrenson, and Jemima, played by sophomore Jamie Dasenbrock, ask their eccen-tric inventor father, Caractacus Potts, played by senior Brock McCullough, to buy their favorite old car from the junk yard. Caractacus does not have enough money to buy the car until he makes enough money by joining a sing-and-dance act. Potts rebuilds the car and names it “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”. While on a picnic with the Potts family and Caractacus’ friend Tru-ly Scrumptious, played by senior Allison Norton, Chitty is in danger of being stolen by the Baron and Baroness of Vulgaria, played by sophomore Ben Ray and junior Sam Franco. The play has taken over a year to put together from start to finish. “There were a lot of steps in picking this musical. We had to pick a season, take student suggestions, look at the budget we have and how much the musical would cost, apply for copy rights; it is a multi-month long process,” said Baker. Tech Director and Fly Manager, Mckenna Williams, says that Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is “one of the hardest productions we’ve ever done” due to the detail and amount of technical and special effects. “Matt Bles and I created the junk car out of wood, and it took us almost three weeks to finally complete it. We looked at the real car from the movie and decided we had to make that car look like crap,” said Williams. The tech team has taken a lot of time and effort to

complete all of the special inventions, such as the birthday cake and music box. Among the drama department, there is an agreement that the car has been the most challenging technical project. “Our car is an exact replica of the car on the original movie, and it has taken more than a year to put together,” says Baker. The car was built by three dads of Millard South alumni students, Doug Aschwege, Roger Coffey, and Tony Wredt. All three dads generously volunteer their time and talent to work on technical projects for Millard South’s drama department every year. Baker says that Chitty Chitty Bang Bang “will be

enjoyable for everyone because both adults and students re-member it from their childhood. There is adult humor and it is also fun for children. Everyone can enjoy it.” Chitty is especially special and different from other productions put on by this year because the department has not put on a show with this many special effects since they put on Beauty and the Beast and the Titanic. There is a lot of exciting anticipation for the show. “Chitty is just easy to love. There is amazing tech involved, fantastic characters, and it is just so much fun!” Baker said.

Some parents just go above and be-yond. Three dads of Millard South High School alumni dedicate their time to help-ing the Millard South drama department with technical projects for the department’s productions every year. These dads are Roger Coffey, father of Tyler Coffey (’05) and Morgan Coffey (’08), Doug Aschwege, father of Kara Aschwege (‘03) and Jordan Aschwege (‘05), and Tony Wredt, father of Erienne Wredt (’02) and Emili Wredt (’03). All of these dads’ children have been graduated for at least seven years, but they still continue to volunteer their mechani-cal talents and time to the department of their kids’ high school drama depart-ment. “Both Tyler and Morgan were part of the tech crews. It was fun to work with them and the other techies in helping with the set construction, and it is fun to show the techies how to handle equipment and put the sets together,” Coffey said. Coffey is a professional engineer at HDR, so he designs a lot of facilities related to the water and wastewater industry. “I learned my construction skills early in life from my uncle who was a carpen-ter,” Coffey said. “That translated into my professional life by giving me a good foun-dation for designing facilities and getting them constructed,” he said.

Aschwege is a facility planner at Northern Natural Gas Company. He spends his days helping customers deter-mine if their pipeline can serve their energy needs, and he found his construction back-ground by working on various remodel-ing projects for the homes he has lived in. When asked why he and the other dads give so generously of their time and talent, Aschwege simply said, “Why wouldn’t everyone?” “It was an honor to be asked to par-ticipate in the set construction,” Aschwege said. “Mrs. Baker runs an outstanding drama department, and it’s hard to believe that anyone given the chance to work with her would choose not to, AND it’s a chance to play with power tools!” “I think it’s important to keep arts edu-cation in our high schools and I hope I help by giving back to the community this way,” Wredt said. He is a district sales manager for a steel distributor and has always en-joyed designing and building things. “The drama department has given me the opportunity to use these talents while being of service to the community,” Wredt said. The dads have been volunteering their own time to design and work on the magical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car and set since early April of 2015, but none of the

dads have any regrets on spending their time in this way. “There are always lots of projects to be com-pleted at home, but how many times in a guy’s life will you get a chance to build a cool old car from scratch?” Aschwege said. They formed a bond through volunteering in Millard South High School activities involving their kids. “We always say that if it wasn’t for our kids, we wouldn’t have any friends. I met Tony and Doug through helping with band, drama, post prom and other school activities. Tony actually got me started in all of those activi-ties, so he is to blame.” Coffey said. Their families even went on a trip to Ireland together last year. “We met with Mrs. Baker in advance of our Ireland vacation that the three of us and our wives had been planning for several months (actually the wives planned the vacation- we just went along for the ride),” Aschwege said.

The drama department deeply appreci-ates what Coffey, Aschwege, and Wredt do. “The drama department calls the them the ‘Elves’ because they magically come in during the night and the next day we come and see that the car has transformed,” senior Brock McCullough said. “Some of the things Mrs. Baker wants us to build can be challenging, but that is what makes it fun,” Coffey said.

C o m m o n S e n s eMillard South High School • 14905 Q St. • Omaha, Neb., 68137 November 13, 2015 Volume 16 Issue 2

Alexa MarshallFeatures Editor

Brock McCullough in the magical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car designed, engineered and built by Roger Coffey, Doug Aschwege and Tony Wredt. Photo courtesy of Robyn Baker

‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ makes a Bang

Magical drama set elves are actually devoted dadsAlexa MarshallFeatures Editor

Baroness (Sam Franco) and Baron (Ben Ray) perform the number “Chu-Chi Face” in Act II of the upcoming production of “Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang that opens Nov. 13 at 7 p.m. and runs Nov. 14 at 7 p.m. and Nov. 15 at 2 p.m. Photo by Allyssa Hynes